We defended the run better when Davenport and McNeil were out. Was it truly because of injuries or was it because the league had 9 games of film on Shepard and his tendencies in play calling?
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With 3 healthy NT types and a 250lb MLB no less. Sorry, but that is scheme because you had the horses to stop the run.
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if Shep played more nickel last year it would have meant less snaps for his friend Barnes but this year with Anzalone gone that will not be an issue
It all starts up front. If there is solid run defense and consistent pressure, we have the dudes behind them to cover. And if the offense can get back to form, like 28+ ppg, weâre going to be fine.
I agree. We were playing McNeil at defensive end on occasion as well. 3 run stuffing defensive tackles on the field backed by an all pro linebacker. Iâd be more inclined to give shepherd the benefit of the doubt if I hadnât watched Glenn stuff the run with guys off the street the last two years.
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Did they have the horses to stop the run though? Alim wasnât himself. Tyleik was a rookie who was okay. Lopez in spurts was solid but all our DTs seemed to regress down the stretch. Losing Josh Paschal really hurt. We couldnât set an edge. Reader ended up signing a roughly $6 million/season with the Giants. Jack Campbell is a beast though.
Scheme? Health? Talent? Likely all three but for the first seven games we were a very good defense against the run.
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I think itâs the DLine that needs to play well and was a let down last year, our big guys were not very good and made our LBers less effective.
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I think when you have the beef that we had, yes we had the horses. Reader and Lopez both got offseason deals with new teams. Tyleik was a first freaking round pick who should at least be a force against the run, yes as a rookie with his size and movement skills. All three of these guys are NT types with NT size.
Alim was a NT (and IMHO he should have stayed one), then we donât pay as much to keep him, donât need to spend a first on Tyleik, or 13M in cap on Reader or the 3 picks invested on Readerâs replacement to be in BroMart. But⌠we had to do all those things and STILL couldnât stop the run. How many NTâs does that make?? IMHO enough to stuff the run if that is your stated number 1 priority. Then you have an All Pro MLB with elite size for the position to deploy behind them.
I think we were too highly invested into big, strong and slow and if you are going to reduce your ability to rush (which we philosophically did) in order to go that route, then youâd better shut down the run. We didnât. I think the offseason player type transition we had, was highly intentional and fixing past mistakes. Weâll see how it goes, but Iâm encouraged. If nothing else, in the tipping of the scales in favor of smaller/faster penetrators. (Where you at RockâŚ)
But the team DID stop the run early before injuries set in. Personally I think off-tackle killed us more than anything. Inability to set an edge opposite Hutch. That was partially set up by an inability to get to the QB that caused DEs to cheat.
I think the question is really did we do enough at DE opposite Hutch. I think that is a solid maybe.
Yes but the injuries were not at the front 7 positions really, those mainly responsible for stuffing the run. I do agree our DBâs play a lot around the LOS by the time the ball is snapped. When we lost Kirby and Branch and TA etc., we lost some of those guys really great ability at limiting perimeter runs. But when you have the beef, all you should get are perimeter runs. We got gashed up the gut quite a bit more than we should have. I do think run fits/design/playcalling had those big guys playing below their ceilings.
I donât know how much is Brad, Dan and or Shep that has decided to transform our Dline depth completely, so that nearly every depth option is a 3t/4i type, not a 1/0 type. We flipped Reader and Lopez with Tyreik and Onwuzurike as DT3/4. Now I view Tyreik as more NT with movement skills. Not unlike we saw with Alim coming out. Look what that turned into. But I think the two top DT snap getters âshouldâ be if all healthy, Alim and Tyreik. That doesnât seem like a quantum change. But itâs what happens down the roster after that, where there was an obvious shift. I just donât know who gave the order to go that way. Or if it was one of those true collaborative efforts where as a staff you evaluated and came to the same conclusion. Hope so. Letâs not be so focused on big guys, that we canât disrupt the interior pocket quickly. NT city to 3t city in one offseason?? Kinda right? Alim/Levi/Wingo/Gill-Howard/West. From Reader, Lopez, BroMart - All 978 lbs of them!
On DE opposite Hutch, Iâm hip. Iâm the dude still whining that we didnât outbid HOU for Danielle HunterâŚ(cough⌠27 sacks later⌠coughâŚ2 years of Davenport instead coughâŚ)